mixMIX-feature

mixMIX is a plug-in of SIGMIX that is aim at describing special scenario of many states in Asia:

Scooters dominating the streets!

Motorbike numbers over number of cars is overwhemingly large. Photo: Koika. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution- Share Alike 1.0 Generic license.

mixMIX has the ability to model mixed flow

The so called [ ‘mixed flow’ of passenger car (PC) and motorbike (MB, or scooter) ] instead of [ homogeneous flow of PC ] in West Europe forms the main sight of many Asian countries. There are many states that are motorbike-dominant (ordered in lexicographical):

Indonesia
Malaysia
Taiwan
Vietnam …etc.
Motorbikes in Vietnam. Photo: Greg Willis from Denver, CO, USA. File licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

The main features of mixed flow behaviours are:

Motorbike(Scooter) riders tend to filter ahead though cars are already slowed down or stopped.
Motorbikes filter ahead to the stop line. Photo: Sham Hardy. File licensed under : Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Motorbike riders does not have strict lane discipline. Rather, they can be anywhere in lane.
Cars and motorbikes influence each other seriously. Existence of cars reduce the mobility of scooters and vice versa.

Thus, the main features of mixed flow in macroscopic view are:

In jammed condition of cars, the motorbikes are not necessarily jammed unless themselves are also with heavy demand.
Motorbike capacity is measured in motorbike per hour per metre (instead of vehicle per hour per lane)
The fundamental diagram (no matter cell transmission model is applied or not)is no longer 2 dimensional (density-flow). Rather, it is 3 dimensional ([pc density]-[mb density]-[flow]) with 4 kinds of data (flow splits into pc flow and mb flow).

In addition, the main features of developing countries are (possibly, but varies among countries:

Strict priority (right of way) is not respected.
Lane discipline is low
Scooter traffic with no concept of lanes. Photo: William Whyte. File licensed under Creative Commons Attribution – Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

The ‘mixMIX’ plugin has the feature of:

Able to describe the mixed flow condition
- Fundamental diagram is 3-dimensional. The passenger cars and motorbikes are taken into account.
- Thus, they are mutually influential: cars are influence the motorbikes; scooters influence cars.
- Motorbike capacity is measured by the accurate value, not the ambiguous ‘passenger car unit (PCU)’.
- Able to describe the fact that “Motorbikes filters ahead in jammed cars unless themselves are jammed”.
In addition, special facilities provided by jurisdiction is naturally embedded:
- The “Advanced Stop Zone” (ASZ) of motorbikes that is provided by jurisdictions to allow ahead-filtering scooters to arrive a shelter ahead of [the stop line of cars].
  Defining the link property is up to user: (1)Whether this is a link with scooters or not; (2)Whether this link is equipped with ASZ. (Figure: Greenwave Octopus.)
- The motorbike “Hook Turn Zone” (HTZ) that allows scooters to make turns indirectly. (Note: This facility is not limited to motorbikes but cars alike: Refer to ‘The Melbourne Hook Turn’.)
  Motorbike “Hook Turn Zone”(HTZ) easily built (see link13). (Figure: Greenwave Octopus)
Able to model rather chaotic traffic phenomenon:
- Partial priority instead of strict ones
- Lane cutters (Queue-cutting behaviour)
Able to generate specific results of motorbike – they are not just ‘0.3pcu’, they are themselves!
- Outflow of motorbikes (and cars)
  Outflow of motorbike is shown in red while that of cars is shown in blue. Motorbikes are themselves now. (Figure: Greenwave Octopus)
- number of motorbikes (and cars) in a link.
  Number of vehicles: Motorbikes are shown in red while Cars are shown in blue. (Figure: Greenwave Octopus)